Heller on EARTH (Catch 22 - Joseph Heller)

Member Name: BathBlue

Product:	Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
Date:	31/07/09 (13 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Can wind you round and scramble you up

Disadvantages: Can wind you round and scramble you up

A winding war story this novel is sheer chaos, which the key underlining concept being about a soldier who ultimately does not want to serve and takes the concept of conscientious objector to the extreme,

An example of the books insanity is that in order to be grounded from a flight mission if you were crazy you would have to ask to be. The problem was if you asked to be grounded for this reason that would be evidence of your sanity and as such it would be grounds for you to henceforth fly again as you would be deemed to be sane enough to do so.

The novel is full of such catch 22 situations such as an sargeant who was only available to deal with any officer enquiries when he was not busy, but whever he was in his office he was always busy. The only time he was never busy was when he was out his office but of course then he was never available.

This style pervades this novel and Heller himself the novelist associated himself with thebeat poets such as Kerouac who were all part of a generation who believed in new form of free open discourse and verbal expression.

What is rare is sardonic nature of this novel and the movie adaption of this novel in which the main character of Yossarian was played by Alan Arkin who appeared in Little miss Sunshine recently, which is funnily enough quite a farcical film. Movies today try to be satirical but I find it strange that the closest to this level of satire is Team America or Borat in terms of poplular culture today. I speak in terms of movies comparitively with novels as it is movies which are more of a common medium for popular culture than the written word. Moving forward the Heller inspired satirists are now freely all over you tube. Satire is no longer as precious but I fell it may be being watered down a catch 22.

The more you critque the less there is to criticise.The less there is to criticise the less you critique eventually leaving more to criticise again!!!!!!

Summary: Will wind you round and scramble you up.